Africa-Press – Tanzania. TANZANIA and Uganda have agreed to cement further bilateral ties, by among other things, improving trade volume and number of investments in both countries.
Also, the two countries are eyeing at partnering on building a pharmaceutical factory for manufacturing of Covid-19 vaccines and other vaccines for livestock, in a continued effort to industrialise the two East African brotherly nations.
The agreements were reached yesterday during an official talk between President Samia Suluhu Hassan and the Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni at the Dar es Salaam State House.
President Museveni is in Tanzania for a three-day state visit in response to an invita- tion from her host, President Samia. Addressing a press confer- ence shortly after completing a tete-a-tete, President Samia said despite an improved business and trade relations between Tanzania and Uganda, there is still need to work on the exist- ing trade barriers for the benefit of the bilateral relations.
“Uganda is the second largest investor to Tanzania among member countries of the East African Community (EAC), so far Uganda has invested in a total of 45 projects in Tanzania worth 114bn US dollars, creat- ing a total of 2,150 employment opportunities,” she explained.
“Also, there is a list of Tanzanian companies that have invested in Uganda and they are doing so well, during our talks we agreed on the need to attract more investors since our countries are well secured” she added.
President Samia went on to explain that trade volume between the two countries has equally increased from 200bn/- in 2014 to 607bn/- that was re- corded in the year 2020.
According to her, they also discussed on modalities to improve investment and business, especially on the agricul- ture, fisheries and industrial sector.
“Our meeting also covered the need to remove non-tariff barriers for our businessmen, and here we have instructed our ministers responsible for trade and business to meet not later than January next year for the sake of addressing the chal- lenge,” emphasized the head of state.
Expounding further, President Samia said they have also seen the importance of increas- ing the volume of Ugandan car- goes passing through the port of Dar es Salaam.
Currently, the port of Dar es Salaam handles only 138,262 tonnes of Ugandan cargoes, with President Samia saying Tanzania has asked for construction of Tanzania Port Authority (TPA) office in Uganda to facilitate service delivery for Ugandan business- men.
Issues in the progress of construction of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EA- COP) from Hoima (Uganda) to Tanga (Tanzania) weren’t left behind during the talks of the two state leaders.
President Samia said she has asked the Ugandan President that all the materials to be used in the project should be delivered through the port of Dar es Salaam.
“We discussed the impor- tance of fast tracking imple- mentation of the strategic projects such as roads and electricity being constructed in the border areas to smoothen business and trade among the people of the two sides,” she noted.
Addressing the press con- ference, the Ugandan President said around 900 million US dollars from the project will remain in Tanzania to cater for different sections of the project.
He also expressed the need for the two countries to apply modern ways of livestock keeping, especially at the border areas of the two countries, in a grand plan to improve productivity of the sector.
In 1986, Uganda had an annual capacity to milking a total of 200 million litres of milk, but for now their annual capacity has increased to 2.8 billion litres.
“We can work together on this since in Uganda we are well experienced and always ready to share the experience for our mutual benefit,” noted the visiting president, thanking his Tanzanian counterpart for the invitation.
Earlier, President Samia commended President Museveni for his support of Tanzania’s education, especially by constructing a primary school in Chato District, Geita region.
The official handing over of the school to the govern- ment of Tanzania is set for to- morrow, when the Ugandan President will be completing his three-day visit to Tanzania.
Today, President Samia and her guest will attend a business forum between Tanzania and Uganda business councils, where the visiting president will later visit the Port of Dar es Salaam and the construction site of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR).
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